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Missouri AG says Congress or SCOTUS must address state livestock rules

Missouri’s attorney general says she would like to see the U.S. Supreme Court resolve an interstate commerce issue that continues to impact how U.S. livestock farmers operate.

Catherine Hanaway tells Brownfield it’s a problem when separate states dictate how all states do business.

“This is the rare issue where I do believe that having a federal standard is perhaps better than a state standard.”

Missouri is part of a 24-state coalition that submitted an amicus brief in March, in support of SCOTUS hearing a case called Triumph Foods vs. Campbell, regarding the Dormant Commerce Clause.

The Dormant Commerce Clause is a legal principle that prevents states from passing laws that unfairly limit or discriminate against business between states.  It helps to keep trade fair and open across state lines.

The brief says Massachusetts’ Question 3 unlawfully regulates pork production, forcing out-of-state farmers to alter production practices. Hanaway says farmers are already seeing the impacts of that with California’s Proposition 12 law.

“It’s not realistic to think that they can meet the space requirements and, cage-free environments that California is trying to impose upon them. It basically means California goes away as a market, which is a big, big market to lose.”

It’s unclear if SCOTUS will consider the case. Four years ago, they heard similar arguments in National Pork Producers Council vs. Ross, and ultimately upheld Prop 12. In that case, the court didn’t define a clear national rule for what happens when state ag regulations burden interstate commerce.

In the meantime, the farm bill recently passed in the U.S. House would allow Congress to set limits on what individual states are allowed to require from out of state farmers to sell food in other states. If that stays in the final farm bill, Hanaway says it would fix the problem.

“By passing a law that takes care of California, Massachusetts and all the other states that have had some bright ideas about telling Missouri hog farmers how to produce their pork.”

Attorneys general from Arkansas, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota, Tennessee and other states also signed the amicus brief sent earlier this year.